McDonald's in 2021 had finally regained it's relevance with GenZ, after seeing declines in brand scores among that cohort for two consecutive years. To cap off the year, it wanted to develop a year-end campaign celebrating what mattered to GenZ the most: friendships

In 2021, Hong Kong had also hit peak-influencer. Mirror had become one of the biggest pop-bands in the city's history, and its members appearing on a majority of the major campaigns in Hong Kong. Its lead singer Keung To, a GenZ favourite, was the face of many major brands including earlier McDonald's campaigns, where he worked as a front-line staff in his teenage years.

While every brand does year end brand campaigns with influencers, due to budget constraints, McDonald's wanted to generate cut-through with a celebrity-less campaign, while still celebrating the notion of friendship.

At the end of 2021, canto-pop superstar Keung To released "Dear My friend", a long-awaited hit single celebrating friendships, which was also bound to win awards at the year-end Hong Kong music awards.

So we decided to capitalize

We were going to develop a series of social posts celebrating true friendships forged over a shared meal of McDonald’s takeaway late into the night, particularly as new COVID restrictions had shut down restaurants and bars.

We would then create a "Friendjack". While conversation about Keung To and his song about friendship trended, we would leverage associated hashtags, as well as use our creative to allude to his story. Therefore driving conversations from Keung To's friendship, into conversations about everyone's own true friendships and how McDonald's was the catalyst

Throughout the year, Keung To had already been the biggest trending topic in Hong Kong. Keung To related search terms comprised 7 of the top 10 searched Hong Kong "People" in 2021.

Moreover, whenever hot topics became "related" to him, interest in those topics shot up. When a Keung To ad was thought to be a parody of a Japanese comedy show, that show became the most searched TV show in Hong Kong. When Keung To posted about his stressful work life, and a newspaper wrote an article about how you can improve your own mental health, that article became the most shared news article.

In the run-up to his single launch, Google search volume for "Dear My Friend" had skyrocketed. We knew that if GenZ thought McDonald's had a related post on Instagram, where most Keung To fan discussion was, it would also drive discussion about McDonald's

The day after the single release, McDonald’s launched a series of social posts celebrating true friendships forged over a shared meal of McDonald’s takeaway, and added one more simple hashtag to allude to the single: #DearMyFriend

Three organic social posts in one day, all on Instagram, depicting Hong Kong's most popular late-night after-hour hangout spots. These included the Tsim Sha Tsui Harbour Front, Housing Estate Playgrounds, and most importantly, the basketball courts of Southorn Playground, where Keung To grew up honing his famed basketball skills.

No mention of Keung To. No image of Keung To's face. Just an image about friendship, with the hashtag #DearMyFriend

- 2300+ engagement in the first day, the highest for any organic (non-boosted) post for McDonald's Hong Kong's Instagram page

- 410,000+ organic reach, most generated through stories as the post itself received 200+ Instagram Stories Shares

However, the most important result was the conversation we managed to drive. People began posting on our comments, as well as on their own Instagram and Twitter accounts, about their friendships and where they were built. They started tagging their BFF's on our post. Some even thanked us for supporting friendship and supporting Keung To. We wanted to become synonymous with friendship, and we did just that.

What's even better, two days after our posts, Keung To's single did in fact win "Fan Favourite Single" at the Hong Kong Ultimate Song Chart awards, which got people talking about our posts all over again.